Gaming off the Beaten Path

The early 00's were a very formative time for video games. This was especially true of console first person shooters. FPS' were dime a dozen on the PC, but it was still a bit of a struggle to get them right on consoles. The first real success, at least to me, came in the form of a handful of really solid Doom ports to the 5th generation consoles, as well as some noble efforts to port the FPS giant to 4th gen hardware (I played a tons of SNES Doom, and I still find it very enjoyable despite the fact it's definitely not the best way to play the game). Turok: Dinosaur Hunter gave way to Goldeneye, which gave way to Perfect Dark on the N64. And if those titles were the seed of FPS' as a viable genre on console, Halo was the tree they eventually blossomed into. Look, I don't like Halo nearly as much as most people do. But you absolutely cannot deny it was revolutionary in terms of graphics, presentation, gameplay and especially control scheme. Halo did for FPS on console...

  It's time to go back to the "racing games based on motorsports I know absolutely nothing about" well once again. This time, we're stepping out of our stock cars and hopping on our dirt bikes. I talked in the NASCAR '99 review about how little I knew of stock car racing. Well, if I know very little about NASCAR, I know next to nothing at all about motocross. Should I be capitalizing motocross? Is it a proper noun? I know that it's essentially racing on dirt bikes, but I don't know any of the rules. I couldn't tell you what the big events are or where the top venues are or who the top riders are. I've heard of Ricky Carmichael, but he was the only member of this game's roster I had recognized. So basically, I am going into this blind, at least when it comes to how the subject matter is presented. That said, I've played a lot of racing games over the past three years, probably more than I had in my entire life, so I'm starting to learn ...

  I've talked a lot about video game series' that haven't stood the test of time, or even one off titles that never managed to receive sequels. That's relatively common amongst lesser known video games. But for this week's entry, it's most certainly not the case. Despite being a somewhat a forgotten series among mainstream gamers in the west, Samurai Warriors is huge in Japan. It also has a relatively small but very dedicated fanbase. They're pretty obviously dedicated, because there wouldn't be 5.8 billion spinoffs and sequels if they weren't. Five numbered sequels, Xtreme Legends, Chronicles and Empires spinoffs, sequels to sequels, ports, Japan only titles, you name it, Samurai Warriors has done it. "Bet you they didn't do a Samurai Warriors racing spinoff!" Yeah I guess you're right, how could they have...oh...wait, they did? It's called Samurai Derby, and it's a free to play browser game. Look it up. The series has an e...

  This week it's back to sports games, though we're going to go in a different direction this time. It's been a while since I've covered an arcade style sports game, but I came across this one and I remember this one getting quite a bit of hype back in the day. In the early aughts, EA sports released a series of "street" sports titles under their EA Sports: BIG brand. The gaming juggernaut used this subdivision to release titles it felt were to EXTREME for its standard brand, like the SSX series and Def Jam Vendetta. In all, 21 games were released under the BIG label, the majority of which ended up being the street sports games. They released various versions of NBA, NFL and FIFA Street games, keeping the professional players while replacing the stadiums and arenas with beaches and alleyways. For this week, we will focus on the first NFL entry. NFL Street is an arcade sports title to its very core. Games are 7 on 7, with players able to organize their teams as...

 Mortal Kombat is back baby! I hope everyone is excited as I am about the new movie. It came out last week but at the time of this writing, I still haven't had time to watch it. As to why, well, we'll get to that later. But I've heard good things. The original MK film was great, it had some really great fight scenes and memorable moments, but as a PG-13 rated movie it had to scale back some of the blood and guts that the franchise was known for. Not this time though, the new version is R-rated and apparently features more of the copious amounts of viscera we've come to know and love from the franchise, including some fatalities that are true to the ones you see in the games. In a way, it's something of a reboot of the franchise. Honestly, I can't think of any franchise that reboots itself more frequently than MK. It's like a cycle at Netherealm Studios, they make an MK game, add whatever insane or ridiculous ideas they can come up with to its sequels, realiz...

 I can't believe it's taken so long. I've covered such a wide range of games and touched so many different franchises over the past two plus years. My reviews have spanned a wide range of IPs, from popular to obscure. I've covered series' I'm passionate about, ambivalent towards and even ones I dislike. And yet, this is the first time I've ever touched "The Simpsons." I've talked at length about how video game series' like Final Fantasy and Mega Man have impacted my life. But I'm not sure any media franchise has made the impact on me The Simpsons have. Anyone who knows me knows The Simpsons are kind of my thing. Those other franchises may define my taste in media. But the Simpsons have defined pretty much my entire personality, much to the chagrin of some. Oh what, you thought I was personable or I had a good sense of humor? Not really, pretty much anything I've ever said that made someone laugh is just a recycled Simpsons joke or r...

Looks like it’s back to license games yet again. I think it’s worth reiterating that not all licensed games are bad.   I mean, last week’s 10’s game was technically licensed.    So are just about all sports games.   But you know that I know that you know those aren’t the kind of games I’m talking about.   I’m talking about stuff like “The Golden Compass” or “Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game.”   And yet as strange as the latter was, this week’s entry may be even more bizarre. Some of you might remember Antz, DreamWorks’ first digitally animated feature.   Released in 1998, it received solid reviews and performed okay at the box office.   It had quite the star-studded voice cast too, with Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, J-Lo, Christopher Walken, Sylvester Stalone, Danny Glover and Gene Hackman.   It also massively pissed off Pixar, who accused it of ripping off their follow-up to Toy Story, “A Bug’s Life,” which would hit theatres o...

“You can’t judge a book by its cover.”   How many times have you heard that in your life?  What I’m sure was once sage advice has become a hackneyed platitude repeated ad naueseum by those looking to appear more open minded than they turn out to be.  That being said, throughout my life I have found that statement to be demonstrably true for the most part. Sometimes though, what you see is what you get.  Take one look at a PS2/XBox game from 2003 based on MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch and the first thing that will most likely pop into your mind is “wow, that game is going to suck.”  I wish I could say I found a hidden gem, or that this was shockingly good or something of that nature.  Hell, I would have been okay with “passable.”  But that most certainly wasn’t the case here. For those of you unfamiliar with Celebrity Deathmatch, it was an MTV show from the late 90’s/early 00’s where claymation versions of famous people ba...